Screen Junkies
Screen Junkies is an online movie magazine and YouTube channel focused on movies and television. Screen Junkies is best known for producing Honest Trailers, a series of short comedy videos that satirize movies and TV shows. Honest Trailers has been nominated for three Emmys, in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Screen Junkies consists two YouTube channels: Screen Junkies main and Screen Junkies News.' '''From 2015 to 2017, Screen Junkies also ran a paid subscription service called '''Screen Junkies Plus'. As of October 2018, Screen Junkies main has over 6.5 million '''subscribers and over '''2,100,000,000 views, while Screen Junkies News has over 1.5 million subscribers and over 650,000,000 views. Visit the Screen Junkies channel on YouTube Company history The Screen Junkies main channel was created on October 3, 2008 but did not start uploading content until 2011. The company was originally owned by Break Media '''and was designed to target a young male demographic. In October 2013, '''Break Media merged with Alloy Digital to become [[ Defy Media|'Defy Media']]. As part of Defy Media, Screen Junkies had close ties with with other Defy Media brands, especially Smosh Games, which has offices in the same building. Some employees, like [[Spencer Gilbert|'Spencer Gilbert']], worked simultaneously on Screen Junkies' Honest Trailers series and Smosh Games' Honest Game Trailers 'series. In July, 2018, Screen Junkies was purchased by Defy Media'FANDOM '''for an undisclosed amount. According to the article published by Variety, FANDOM had been "interested in teaming with '''Screen Junkies for about a year." Fandom is part of Wikia, the company that powers this very wiki. The GM of Screen Junkies is Michael Chiang. In any given week, up to 18 people work at Screen Junkies. Company identity Screen Junkies has always been part of a larger company, unlike many other YouTube channels that started out as small projects pursued by individuals. Screen Rant compared Screen Junkies' approach to other YouTube companies like CinemaSins, writing "''There is a major difference in the two companies right from inception, though. Whereas Sins is the product of friends chasing a single idea, Screen Junkies is a subsidiary of Defy Media that set out to explicitly build its brand; go back to the start of the channel and you find a slew of playful movie-themed videos attempting to tap into the zeitgeist, with 'Honest Trailers' emerging as a success almost by accident after a single video mocking the 3D re-release of 'The Phantom Menace. And while SJ has since evolved into a massive network with multiple shows, a second news channel (formerly Clevver Movies) and a paid subscription service, as well as fan meetups and SDCC events, Sins remains at its core the same thing; they actually have more subscribers, but that only highlights the different types of success the pair get." [https://books.google.com.au/books?id=3g09DAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false The book The Politics of Ephemeral Digital Media suggests] that Screen Junkies is an example of a channel characterized by an "overall playfulness" including "parodies and playful takes on movies and media products" and other seemingly "fannish or amateurish endeavours" (page 144). The authors note a serious business model underlies this playful exterior. Main Shows Screen Junkies main (SJ) has three core shows: [[Honest Trailer|'''Honest Trailers]], [[Movie Fights|'Movie Fights']] and The Screen Junkies Show. Honest Trailers .]] Honest Trailers 'is a comedy series of fake trailers that satirizes and parodies movies and TV shows. 'Honest Trailers are short videos, usually 3-7 minutes in length, that combine the visual style of movie trailers with parody voice-over to humorously reveal the true nature of a movie or show. It is Screen Junkies' most successful show in terms of both view-count and critical acclaim. Honest Trailers has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Variety Shortform Variety Series" three times, in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Honest Trailers has also won two Streamy Awards - Best Writing in 2016, and Best Collaboration in 2017, shared with actor Ryan Reynolds. Honest Trailers debuted in February 2012, created by [[Andy Signore|'Andy Signore']] and Brett Weiner,' '''and shepherded by Break Media's Head of Programming '''Mitch Rotter'. Since 2012, over 250 Honest Trailers have been produced. The Honest Trailers series is a source of over 1 billion total views. The narrator of Honest Trailers is currently [[Jon Bailey|'Jon Bailey.']] The persona of the narrator is usually referred to as Epic Voice Guy. Epic Voice Guy is considered a fictional character in his own right, as he has a fictional family, history and personality totally distinct from Bailey's. The series is currently written and produced by [[Spencer Gilbert|'Spencer Gilbert']], [[Joe Starr|'Joe Starr']] and [[Dan Murrell|'Dan Murrell']]. See the main page about Honest Trailers and the list of Honest Trailers '''for more information. '''Movie Fights was the''' 2018 Championship Title Match''' featuring Dan Murrell, Ed Greer and Cucumber.]] Movie Fights is a competition wherein three guests debate various issues related to movies and pop culture. Movie Fights is currently hosted by [[Hal Rudnick|'Hal Rudnick']] with the support of fact-checker [[Dan Murrell|'Dan Murrell']] and social media ambassador Danielle Radford. Movie Fights is also available as a podcast. See the main page about Movie Fights. The Screen Junkies Show The Screen Junkies Show is an assorted collection of discussions, interviews, supercuts and stunts related to movies. The host of The Screen Junkies Show is [[Hal Rudnick|'Hal Rudnick']]. Other shows' The Screen Junkies main channel also periodically releases other shows including''' Cram It!, which humorously abridges long-running movie and TV franchises to coincide with the release of new installments or seasons; and '''Serious Questions, which asks humorously nitpicky and trivial questions about films. Flick Bait was a variety/sketch show that ran for 21 episodes in 2017. Screen Junkies News The company's second channel, Screen Junkies News (SJNews) has over 1.5 million subscribers and over 650,000,000 views.In September 2018, Screen Junkies News had 1.7 billion views. 2 days later, this had dropped to 650 million views. The explanation for this sudden drop in views is the deletion of several highly-viewed videos. The reason for the videos' deletion is unknown, though many of the most highly-viewed videos on the channels were from its earliest days - they were movie trailers, not original content. SJNews is home to several shows including the daily news and talk show Screen Junkies Universe (SJU), the weekly box office analysis show Charting with Dan, weekly Honest Trailer commentaries, weekly movie reviews and regular special features '''such as '''It Could Have Been Worse,' Background Extras That Ruined Movies', Smash Hit '''and Cast Away. Previously aired shows on SJNews include Millennial Falcon', a '''Star Wars themed show, and Watching Thrones, a Game of Thrones recap show. The Editor-in-Chief of Screen Junkies News is [[Roth Cornet|'Roth Cornet']]. The Screen Junkies News channel was created on March 5, 2009 and was originally called Clevver Movies. '''It was part of '''Clevver Media, and was a sister channel to Clevver TV, Clevver Style and Clevver News. Clevver Media was acquired by Alloy Digital in 2012, which later merged with Break Media to become Defy Media. In October 2016, Defy Media announced that ClevverMovies was rebranding and becoming ScreenJunkies News. Screen Junkies Plus , Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell and Jon Bailey also provide the voices. The female character is voiced by Joe's wife, Torlin Torgersen.]] From 2015 - 2017, Screen Junkies also ran its own paid subscription service called Screen Junkies Plus '('SJ+ '''or Plus'). Plus offered a slate of original programming available through either the website (ScreenJunkies.com) or an app for a monthly fee of $4.99. New subscribers were offered a free 3-month trial and other package options. '''Plus' was announced during the 56th episode of Movie Fights (air date 11/8/15) and was marketed as an exclusive, premium service. An article published on Medium explained the logic behind the move to a paid subscription model: "The move comes on the heels of a massive shift in the YouTube economy triggered by the launch of YouTube’s SVOD service, YouTube Red. With even traditionally ad-supported platforms like YouTube looking to capture subscription revenue, and an ever-expanding array of SVOD options ranging from aggregators like Watchable, Go90 and Vessel to niche providers like SeeSo. Defy will be competing with media players large and small for a piece of a rapidly disappearing subscription pie." In a 2017 interview, Andy Signore explained that Plus meant that Screen Junkies wasn't so dependent on the YouTube ever-changing algorithm for views and revenue, saying, "You need to make sure you have multiple ways to reach audience because at the end of the day YouTube’s algorithm can change however they want–they can flip a switch and suddenly your numbers start going away." The popularity/financial viability of Plus has never been made public. In May 2017, Fast Company wrote that the "supplemental revenue stream has allowed Screen Junkies to venture into new territory, namely documentaries,"The planned feature-length documentary was about the fan response to the 1999 film Galaxy Quest. '''''The status of this documentary is unknown, but it is presumed it was abandoned after Andy Signore was fired in October 2017. however Plus ceased production approximately one month later in June 2017. Subscribers were offered refunds for any pre-paid months. Some Plus shows ceased production altogether, but others were moved to the Screen Junkies News YouTube channel and continued production e.g. SJU, Honest Trailers Commentaries and TV Fights. All existing Plus content remained accessible on the website and app until early 2018. The paywall was dropped, meaning that 2 years worth of content became free-of-charge to everyone. In early 2018, Defy Media made a business decision to stop supporting the website and app and all content was removed. The removal of this content was not linked to the firing of Andy Signore or FANDOM's purchase of Screen Junkies - in fact, Defy Media ceased operations entirely approximately 6 months later and reportedly owes large amounts of money to other parties. All the Plus content still exists, but Screen Junkies has no way of releasing it at present. Screen Junkies Plus Shows was a show produced exclusively for Screen Junkies Plus. One episode, Naruto, was also uploaded to YouTube.]] Below is a complete list of shows that were available on Screen Junkies Plus: * '''''Mundy Night Raw - Hosted by Nick Mundy and Dan Murrell * Movie Games - Hosted by Jeremy Jahns * TV Fights - Hosted by Roxy Striar. Continued on SJNews for a few months in 2017, before ceasing production after Andy Signore was fired. * Does It Hold Up? - Hosted by Spencer Gilbert * Mega Movie Get Together - Hosted by Andre Meadows * After Credits - collaboration with the How It Should Have Ended crew * Screen Junkies Universe - Hosted by Andy Signore and Alicia Malone. Continued on SJNews, hosted by Roth Cornet. * Dan's Labyrinth - Honest by Dan Murrell * F1rst and Worst - Hosted by Chris Stuckmann * Interns of F.I.E.L.D. - an original scripted sitcom. * Screen Junkies Roasts ''- featuring comedians performing sets as fictional characters. Hal Rudnick and Joe Starr both performed multiple characters in various Roasts. * ''Flash and Friends ''- The Flash and Arrowverse recap show, hosted by Joe Starr and Roxy Striar. Still available as a podcast. * ''Watching Thrones ''- ''Game of Thrones ''recap show. Continued on SJNews. Still available as a podcast. * ''Debugging Mr Robot - Mr Robot ''recap show. Still available as a podcast. * 'Knocking Dead '''- The Walking Dead recap show. Still available as a podcast. * Pitch Off ''- hosted by Doug Benson. * ''Gamer Fights - hosted by Matt Raub * After the Fight - a Movie Fights after show * Summer Movie Report ''- hosted by Dan Murrell and Sasha Perl-Raver. Continues on SJNews as ''Charting With Dan. * Movie vs Movie ''- Hosted by John Flickinger * ''Honest Trailers Anime - spinoff of Honest Trailers. Some episodes have since been uploaded exclusively to Facebook. Screen Junkies on Facebook Screen Junkies also upload many of their videos to Facebook, where they attract a significant amount of views. Screen Junkies also release some videos exclusively on Facebook, including The Dailies, which are usually short, shareable videos, often related to memes. Screen Junkies has also made a selection of Honest Trailers Anime available exclusively on Facebook. There is often a massive gulf between the popularity of videos posted to Facebook compared to other platforms. For example, in 2018, Screen Junkies' The Dailies Stranger Things meme "trying to find my will to go to the gym like..." attracted over 27 million views on Facebook, but only 20k views on Twitter. Likewise, some Honest Trailers attract significantly more views on Facebook than they do on YouTube, for example Every Wes Anderson Movie has 2 million views on YouTube, and 5.3 million views on Facebook. See the Screen Junkies Facebook page for details. Signore incident On October 8, 2017, [[Andy Signore|'Andy Signore']] was fired for "egregious and intolerable behavior." Multiple women came forward on social media to accuse him of sexual harassment and one woman accused him of attempted sexual assault. The attempted sexual assault had been raised to [[Defy Media|'Defy Media's']] HR department months beforehand with no apparent consequences until the allegations were made public. Signore's firing happened soon after allegations about Harvey Weinstein were made public, and is considered part of the #MeToo movement and The Weinstein Effect. All Screen Junkies channels remained dark for three weeks after the incident while the employees decided whether they would continue with the company. Signore's image was removed from the thumbnails of several videos on both channels following his termination, and several videos on both channels featuring Signore were deleted out of sensitivity. This included changing the thumbnail on the Titanic Honest Trailer to be less objectifying, deleting several videos filmed at Comic Con that featured hosts objectifying female cosplayers, and deleting all episodes of Flick Bait. Some episodes of Flick Bait included comedy sketches that appeared dubious in light of the accusations. Some shows permanently ceased production after Signore's firing, including Flick Bait and TV Fights. Movie Fights went on a three month hiatus, but returned as weekly show with a retooled format and a new host in 2018. Upon their return to work in late October 2017, the Screen Junkies hosts expressed unequivocal support for the women who came forward. They explained the workplace changes which were to be introduced to ensure a similar situation could never happen again. This included a third party to look into how Defy Media handled the complaint, sexual harassment training for all staff, a fan interaction code of conduct and the commitment to be "more a part of the world." Screen Junkies linked the Signore situation to the wider cultural shift regarding sexual harassment happening all across the entertainment industry, as well as the broader problem of workplace harassment in general. Screen Junkies contributors expressed a willingness to examine how their own practices invited divisiveness. They also endeavored to improve the culture of the Screen Junkies community through changes to programming and comment moderation. In May 2018, Screen Junkies ran the Movie Fights Live Extravaganza fundraiser benefiting the charity Women in Film. The Screen Junkies community together raised over $38,000. List of references External links * Screen Junkies YouTube channel * ScreenJunkies News YouTube channel * Screen Junkies Twitter account * SJNews Twitter account * Screen Junkies Facebook page * Screen Junkies News Facebook page * Screen Junkies' page on Wikipedia * Screen Junkies' page on Wikitubia, the Youtubers Wikia * 'Screen Junkies podcasts available via Player.fm '(Incl. Movie Fights, Watching Thrones, Knocking Dead, Flash and Friends, Debugging Mr Robot). Category:Organizations Category:Screen Junkies Category:Youtubers